The amazing true story of conman Sukesh

What does a fraud usually involve? Lots of money in foreign accounts and suitcases, sharp looking men in suits and police on the chase? In one of our country's biggest extortion case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a 7,000-page chargesheet against conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, his wife actor Leena Maria Paul and six others. The Rs 200-crore money-laundering case is full of bizarre details, far from suits or suitcases. Among other things, Sukesh had supposedly gifted a horse worth Rs 52 lakh and a Persian cat worth Rs 9 lakh to actress Jacqueline Fernandez. Sukesh had also supposedly gifted actress Nora Fatehi a luxury car. But in October this year, the two actresses had appeared before the ED, and have been helping with the interrogation.   

How did Sukesh get in touch with the actresses?  
Sukesh, according to news on December 15, had managed to con his way across as an important person from Minister Amit Shah’s office! He contacted Jacqueline via her make-up person, and used her to dump gifts he was buying with extorted funds. In the process, he was turning black money white, or money laundering, as it’s called. He gave her diamond-studded jewellery sets, fancy crockery, expensive pets, designer bags and jewellery and even expensive gym wear. 

Who else did conman Sukesh fool?  
Sukesh was trying to launch his wife, Leena Maria Paul in Bollywood. He started promising huge sums of money to Jacqueline and Nora, as well as renowned film director and producer Sajid Nadiadwala. It seems now that he had extorted money on one end, and promised to pay on another, spending bits of the money on gifts, to convert it into legal purchase. In fact, Sukesh has spent crores to live comfortably in the infamous Tihar Jail.  

How did Sukesh get so rich?  
Sukesh made crores by promising business men of settling legal cases if he was paid an advance. He also promised to get them huge bank loans, and took fees accordingly. Sukesh is from Bangalore, and has duped so many people in Bangalore and Chennai that police is still finding victims. He already faces 15 FIRs, and the number is growing.